The Nanny in the Loft with a Cell Phone
by megpat2000
Summary: Beckett and Castle have welcomed a new addition to their lives, but with a new Serial Killer out in NYC Kate needs to return to work and Castle has a book due. They decide to hire a nanny, but what do they really know about the girl they have hired? 2013 Castle Ficathon Entry. Future Fic.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One.

There is something uniquely serene about watching a newborn sleep, so peaceful and calm. The slow rise and fall of their chest, the little puffs of air that escape their mouths with every breath that they take. The way their hands are curled into tiny little fists that instinctually grasp onto anything put near them.

Kate Beckett was probably going to miss this part the most when she returned to work at the precinct. Sitting by her sons crib during his daily naps and just _watching_ him. He was her miracle, a surprise, yes, but still a miracle none the less and at six weeks old she was facing the dilemma a lot of new mothers faced - having to return to work. For Kate that meant back to the twelfth, back with the boys, back to the bodies and back to making the world a safer place for her son.

"Has he passed out?" she turned to see Castle leaning against the doorway of the nursery.

"Yeah, about fifteen minutes ago, I was just..." she turned back to gaze down at her son.

"Watching him, I know. " He quietly walked into the room and joined her staring down into the crib at their son.

"I used to do exactly the same thing with Alexis, and I still do it with him as well. There is something so amazing about them, I don't know how to explain it." He whispered.

"I don't know how I am going to leave him for eight or more hours a day, Castle," she breathed softly. "I haven't even left him alone for more than three hours since he was born."

"The first few days are the hardest. Actually no, that's not true, _everyday_ it's hard to leave, but it does get easier... besides someone has to be the breadwinner of this family." He gently tugged at her waist and pulled her into his chest.

"That is very true, I mean the famous novelist Richard Castle hasn't released a new novel in over a year, things are getting a little tight." She gave him a mischievous grin.

He gently tickled her back. "Well, someone kind of disrupted my writing time by you know, getting pregnant, moving in with me, and then bringing the best distraction ever into the world."

"Castle, you played a pretty big part in disrupting yourself you know. It does take two to tango."

At that moment, the peacefully sleeping baby let out a tiny squeak and gurgle, and Kate reached into the crib to place the pacifier into his mouth and he immediately settled back to sleep. Castle reached in to stroke the dark hair on his sleeping sons head.

"Best outcome of any Tango I ever did," He whispered "We better head down and get ready, the first interview is at one o'clock." Kate continued to gaze at her son.

"Do you really think we need a nanny? I mean, between your mom, Alexis, my dad, Jenny and Ryan, Lanie and Esposito - there are plenty of people to help look after him."

Castle took her by the hand and lead her out of the door gently closing it behind her.

"We've had this discussion over and over again Kate, I know you're not overly pleased with the idea, but how about we just meet some of these people, get a feel for them and how they might fit into our family and make a decision from there."

Their family.

Sometimes he had to stop and check to make sure that he was actually awake and it wasn't all part of the best dream he had ever had. When he had turned up at the precinct that morning in June with a coffee in hand and she immediately refused it- he knew something wasn't right. When she texted him a photo of a positive pregnancy test from the women's bathroom at the precinct after a revealing conversation with Lanie an hour later- while he was in the middle of dissecting the case by staring at the murder board- he dropped his phone to the floor gaining odd looks from the boys.

They continued to give him incredulous stares as he mumbled something about the women's bathroom and headed in that general direction. He found Kate still hiding in the stall, sitting on the edge of the toilet, staring at the stick- unmoving, with a few stray tears on her cheeks. When she looked up at him, and realisation hit that it wasn't a joke and it was actually real, he pulled her up and nearly crushed her in a hug, whilst kissing the side of her face. When he let go and she pulled back, she had the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face and he knew in that moment that this is something she wanted.

No it wasn't planned, they were sort of, kind of engaged- meaning they decided that there were going to get married one day, she had a ring, but when was left up to Kate- and they were pretty well living together. Meaning everything of Kate's was at his loft, but she still had her apartment- just for storage. They had talked about having children one day, Kate wanted to at least get through her Detective Sergeant exams, actually get married and then try for a baby. But a dose of stomach flu and antibiotics consipred against their planning.

Her OB/GYN confirmed it three days later, they announced it to their families two days later and announced it to their friends and the world three months later. Kate was on desk duty from October and wasn't happy about it- but knew she had to put her baby ahead of her career. During a massive snow storm at the end of January her water broke at midnight, and by news hour the next day after a drug free labour, she was holding their son.

Noah James Castle.

Seven pounds, eight ounces, grey eyes and a slight covering of dark brown hair.

Perfection.

Castle had raised the idea of hiring a nanny a few times throughout the pregnancy, but each time she dismissed him by saying that she wasn't going back to work anytime soon, she was fine with desk duty and they had a huge support network who could help look after the baby. Then they brought him home, and the sleepless nights took their toll on them, and a serial killer started to take his toll on New York.

Gates asked both of them to review the cases to see if they had any unique insights that they might have missed and Kate got that feeling in her stomach. She got that itch in her hands. She had that voice in the back of head saying - 'what if you could solve this?' It all meant she and Castle decided that it was best if she went back to work. She had to solve this case, before more innocent girls lost their lives in horrific ways. Which lead them to Nanny agency, a list of candidates and now the interview process.

"I know it makes sense on paper, but I just don't know if I can leave him with a complete stranger." Kate spoke with a determination in her voice.

As they made their way downstairs to their bedroom, Kate flicked on the baby monitor sitting on the kitchen bench and checked on the screen that Noah was still sleeping soundly.

He knew that this was difficult for Kate, but he really thought that it would be the best thing for them. Not only did it mean that she could go back to work knowing that her son was being well looked after, but it also meant he could still go to work with her, still escape to write- because he REALLY did need to get the next Nikki Heat out- but they could do it without feeling guilty that they were "dumping" their son on their family members.

When he and Meredith had Alexis, financially they weren't in a position to have help, and Castle was home 24/7 so he was able to play stay at home dad with very little adjustment. But this time it was different.

Kate needed to go back work. He needed to get his book out - his advance was tied up in the nursery upstairs- Alexis was in her senior year at College, Martha was performing on Broadway six nights a week and Jim had just entered a phasing down heading to retirement.

"The point of interviewing them is so that they are no longer complete strangers, and if they can survive a grilling from a detective in the NYPD then they are probably the perfect person for the job. Also you have the best access we can get to do background checks, so I feel rather confident in saying that we are probably going to have one of the best nannies out there!" He gave her that cheeky smile that she knew their son had already inherited.

Kate stepped into the closet taking in the words her partner has just said.

"Okay, but I am not making any promises here. If I don't feel comfortable with any of these girls then the decision is made that I just won't go back to work until he is in preschool." She sorted through her clothes looking for something to wear and she could have sworn she heard a 'yeah right' come from the bathroom.

He did have solid reasoning of course, she desperately wanted to help solve the case, arrest the bad guys and have them locked up forever. It was just now, her priorities had changed. If you had of asked the Kate Beckett of five years ago if this is where she would have seen herself, she probably would have told you that she would be well on her way to lieutenant maybe even working for a federal agency.

She was a mom now and that changed things. Including letting an unknown person into your house, into your life and into your family to take care of the most important person to you. What if it all went wrong and something happened to their son?

It was a risk she was not going to take, every single person who wanted this job was going to find out just how just what it was like to be in the spotlight of an NYPD Detective.

"Good luck to them" she quietly whispered to herself.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She was running late. Not just a few seconds late, but significant minutes leading into looking unreliable late. Not a good start.

How was she supposed to know that the her train from New Jersey would lose all power and she would be transferred to a PATH train that took her to the World Trade Centre stop instead of her originally intended and thoroughly Google mapped Penn Station stop.

Now was not a time to panic.

She had been in the city for a few months now and she knew her way around the subway system. She pulled out her map, with her original stops highlighted. She knew the N train was the one she had to be on, except now she needed to go North to SOHO from the WTC not South from Penn Station.

She glanced at her watch, 3:17pm.

She had thirteen minutes to find the entrance to a N-train platform, get to SOHO and find the apartment. All the while ensuring she looked calm and didn't freak out because this job was ridiculously important to her.

12 minutes.

Screw it, she needed to run.

* * *

Arriving at the apartment building looking exactly like someone who had just run ten blocks in the last of a New York city winter chill, she pulled open the doors and entered the foyer. She checked her watch again.

3:35pm.

She was now officially late.

"Good afternoon Miss, may I help you?" The doorman greeted her with a smile and slight look of concern.

"Hi, I have an interview for a nanny position with the Castle family. I was supposed to be here at three - thirty but apparently the local transit system doesn't care about being punctual." She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror behind him, her hair was a mess of curls protruding from her winter hat and her face was flushed fully red.

"Name please miss?"

"Louise, Louise Daley." He scanned a piece of paper on his desk.

"Ah yes, you are the third and last one for today. I will send you up in the elevator to their floor."

As she entered the lift she tried to fix her hair and her face so she looked remotely employable. Of all days to look like a mess, today was not one of them. Her phone beeped from inside her bag. She pulled it out, desperately hoping it wasn't the nanny agency calling to ask why she was late to an interview. It was a text message.

_'Did you get the job?'_

Not the nanny agency then. She threw her phone back in her bag, rearranged her scarf and took one last look in the reflective surface of the elevator walls as just as it came to the right floor.

"Here we go." She whispered under her breath.

* * *

Kate sat on the lounge in living room, cradling Noah to her chest while he satiated himself for his afternoon feed. The muslin cloth that covered her son occasionally rippling as he tried desperately to remove it from over himself.

This afternoon hadn't gone as well as she had hoped. It had gone exactly the way Castle had hoped, but Kate just wasn't yet _feeling it_ with any of the prospective nannies. The first was a fifty-six year old woman from the Philippines, who had two grown children of her own in college and had been nannying for a family on the Upper east side for the last five years. She was so well qualified for the job, answered the questions as perfect as you would hope, arrived ten minutes early and had a resume any one would be proud of. But Kate just didn't _connect_ with her, and neither did Castle. But that didn't stop him from thinking she was perfect.

The second was a twenty-four year old from the Bronx, born and raised. She graduated Nanny school at eighteen (_they have a nanny school?) _ and has spent the last six years with a family living in Dubai and New York City. She was funny, she was sweet- but when Noah woke from his nap and she held him, he just wouldn't settle. The minute Kate took him from her arms he calmed right down. Kate made her decision then whilst Castle thought Noah probably just needed a little time to get used to her.

"I don't know what it says about this next one when she is already ten minutes late." Castle mentions as he sits next to Kate on the lounge, placing a bottle of water for her on the coffee table.

"Castle, it's ten minutes. That could be two red lights in a taxi, an accident on the FDR or a delayed subway train." She removed the muslin sheet from over Noah and switched him to the other side to feed, promptly covering him back up. Castle couldn't help but watch in awe. This task of feeding that she struggled with for so many days after he was born now came so easy for her.

"What do we know about this one?" She asked, getting Castle's attention back to her eyes not her chest.

"Thirty, previously lived in Canada, previously worked as a teacher, studying medicine but taking a study break to live in the States." He read from her bio the agency emailed over.

"A little odd that she is a teacher studying medicine who suddenly wants to nanny don't you think?" Kate's detective radar quickly picking up the peculiarity.

"Hmm, she has fabulous references from families she worked for in Canada whilst studying. So we know she can multitask. Except for arriving on time."

"Says the man who is continually twenty minutes late for every event he ever has to attend!" At that moment there was a knock on the door. Kate rearranged Noah and herself to be comfortable whilst Castle stood to answer the door.

What he did expect to see certainly wasn't what greeted him as he swung open the door to the loft. This girl had curly mousy brown hair, striking blue eyes, thick framed glasses and definitely looked somewhat hastily put together.

"Hi, Mr Castle? I am Louise from the Nanny agency." He detected some form of an accent that wasn't wholly Canadian. He opened the door further and gestured for her to enter.

"Yes, hello. I'm Rick Castle," he held out his hand for her to shake, which she did- rather firmly, "Please come in."

She followed him into the lounge room, removing her coat, hat, scarf and gloves as she walked. Castle taking her coat and hanging it in the coat closet.

"This is my partner Kate and..." Kate made a move to stand, but Louise quickly interrupted.

"Please, don't make the effort on my behalf, I know how hard it is to get comfortable when you're trying to feed." She looked at the muslin covered bundle.

"And this is who?"

Kate smiled, "His name is Noah."

"Oh, what a gorgeous name. I can't wait to actually meet him." She stood comfortably in the middle of the room. Kate couldn't detect a single ounce of nervousness coming from the girl, but she was getting a slight sense of something that she couldn't yet pin point exactly.

"Ah, would you like to take a seat and we can get started." Castle motioned for the single chair whilst he sat down next to Beckett on the lounge.

"So, what would you like to know?" Beckett noticed she was clutching a folder, which no doubt contained all the usual documents. Resume, references etc.

"Well firstly I think we should let you know a little about us. Kate is a Homicide detective with the NYPD and the current serial case requires her to go back to work. I used to go to work with Kate most days when she was in the field, and I also spend a large chunk of my time writing."

Beckett saw it in Louise's eyes when she had that light bulb moment. The other two woman had already apparently done their research and knew who they were coming to meet. But this one, she seemed almost shocked to suddenly realise that this was the Richard Castle. At least, that's what it looked like to Kate from where she was sitting.

"Wow, that's awesome that you are a homicide detective. I mean I know it must a really stressful and awful job at times, but you get to be the one to put the most awful people in our society behind bars. I respect that."

Totally not the response Kate was expecting. She was always so used to everyone gushing over the novelist Richard Castle or questioning her about being his muse. Rarely did someone mention being respectful of her position. She might just like this girl she thought to herself, as Louise continued to speak.

"Look, firstly I want to apologise for being late. My train was delayed and I had to catch a different subway, and I am still only relatively new to the city. I have been to a few of these interviews now, and each time it seems my newness to the city is like a red flag. I have been here plenty of times before as a tourist, it is just an entirely different situation when you suddenly move here." She glanced up at Castle who was staring at her.

"I know it isn't the best start, but I promise you that I will be one hundred percent dedicated to the care of your little boy. I have spent four years of my life looking after the welfare of twenty-five children five days a week. I have always been surrounded by children, and babies. I LOVE babies, and they seem to love me as well. Friends of mine have often referred to me as their own personal baby whisperer, I guess I just have a way with kids. I just haven't been in a position myself to have any children of my own. "

Kate smiled at her, whilst Rick was still staring at her in some form of stupor. Louise immediately recognised the signs.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I tend to be a bit brash, a bit chatty, a bit quirky I guess you could say. My personality is one that you either get along with really well or you want to murder twenty minutes after meeting me. Which is handy given you're murder writer and your partner is a homicide detective- you could get rid of me and no one would ever know."

There was silence in the room.

"And there I go again. I'm sorry." She shook her head as she apologised.

Richard Castle was stunned into silence. She was just so different to what he had pictured their nanny could be or should be for that matter. But there was something about her that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he likes her. He turned to look at Kate- she had a similar look on her face.

"Louise, don't worry about it. I am kind of used to it after living and working with this guy for years." She nodded her head towards Castle. He feigned hurt.

"Thank you." She relaxed slightly.

"Basically we are looking for someone who can help look after Noah during the day from when I have to go to work, until I get home or Castle gets home. We would also like some help in keeping the place organised and doing Noah's laundry and all those sorts of things." She stopped when it appeared Noah had finished his meal.

Kate pulled the muslin cloth back from over Noah so that she could move him into a position to burp him. She placed him over her shoulder and gently patted his back. He squirmed, let out a little cry but still wouldn't burp. Kate switched shoulders and continued patting his back, Noah continued to scrunch his body and continued to whimper.

"He has always had issues with gas pains after a feed, the doctors hope that it should get better in a few weeks as his digestive system improves and matures." Castle said in soothing voice whilst looking over at Kate.

Louise tentatively held out her hands. "Do you mind if I have a try?"

Kate looked over at Castle who nodded his head. She stood and gently handed the still fussing baby over to Louise who sat him on her knee supporting his chin in her hand and began alternating patting and rubbing circles on his back whilst gently bouncing him on her knee. He immediately calmed down and a few seconds later let out a decent sounding burp for a tiny bundle.

"I call that my signature move." Louise smiled at Kate as she handed Noah back to her.

Kate turned to Castle and he was grinning at her, one that she immediately returned. It seems that had their first real possible candidate for their nanny.

* * *

Over an hour later Louise stepped back off the elevator into the lobby. The same doorman was there to see her out.

"You must have done something special maam, the other two women were out in under twenty minutes."

Louise smiled, that was exactly what she hoped to hear. As she exited the building much more calmly as she entered her phone started to ring. She looked at the screen and accepted the call.

_'So, how did it go?'_

"Pretty well as we planned it. I charmed them, won them over with my awesome nanny skills and then got to know them a bit more over a coffee."

_'Excellent.'_

"Have you made the necessary adjustments to my record because I have no doubt that the next step for them will be a thorough background check?"

_'That is all under control. Louise Daley looks like a perfect model citizen and would make an ideal nanny for them.'_

"Good. If I am going to do this job successfully and integrate in with their family then nothing out of the ordinary can come up. Did you run the facial recognition software to make sure my face doesn't pop up in an NYPD feeds?"

_'Sarah, this is not my first rodeo. I know what I'm doing.'_

"I know, this is just different to all the other jobs. I don't want to screw this one up." She said rather harshly as she clicked off her phone and continued walking back to the subway. She would know by tomorrow afternoon if she had the job. Even though with the modifications they had made to the backgrounds of the other two candidates interviewing tomorrow- she would definitely be the one to pick.

If only they knew.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has favourited/followed/reviewed this story. **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three.

Kate was exhausted.

She thought she knew what exhaustion felt like after pulling a twenty-four hour shift running on nothing but the caffeine she would ingest like water- but this, this was complete and utter exhaustion like nothing she had ever experienced.

Noah had decided that he was going scream for three hours straight starting at one am. It came after he had whimpered himself into a slumber (_finally!)_ at eleven, she managed to grab just under two hours of sleep before he turned into the devil child. He was fed, clean and dry but nothing aside from the continual bouncing motion of being in his mother's arms could soothe him. Just after four am, as the sun was starting to peak through the darkness of night he dropped into a solid sleep and Kate was able to crawl into bed.

Castle had come in sometime during the screaming match but she had sent him away, determined to settle him. He came back an hour later and she handed Noah over, with tears in her eyes, feeling like a complete failure as a mother. She tried to get some sleep- but hearing her son wail from his nursery was too much and she couldn't even sneak in ten minutes of shut eye.

She flipped her pillow over, trying to calm down and get comfortable.

"Is he finally out?" A voice whispered from the other side of the bed.

"Yes, thank god." She sounded exhausted.

He rolled over and pulled her into his chest. Her breathing immediately slowed and she fell into a deep sleep.

Then at five am, Noah wanted to be fed. This how Kate discovered her new definition of exhaustion.

Unlike pulling a twenty four hour shift after which she could sleep straight for the next twenty four, after this twenty four hour shift she had to get up and do it all over again.

"I'll go get him, you stay here." Castle groaned as he pulled himself out of bed.

Kate didn't think she could love Castle any more until he uttered those words. He returned ten minutes later with Noah, who was much too bright eyed for a six week old who had been up all night.

"Maybe it's time to start expressing so he can get used to taking the bottle before you go back to work." He mumbled as he handed Noah over to Kate who was already sitting propped up in the bed ready to feed him.

"Castle, are we really having this conversation now?" Her voice growing with agitation. She closed her eyes and leant back against the headboard of the bed as Noah began to suckle.

"I just thought that if we had the bottles, then on mornings like this- or even during nights like that, then I could at least feed him and you can get some sleep. Especially if you have to work the next day." He had crawled back into bed beside her.

"I'm sorry for snapping, I'm just so tired, but you're right. As much as I love feeding him, right now I would much prefer to be sleeping." She still had her eyes closed.

"Did Ryan send through the backgrounds for the three nannies we shortlisted?" Her voice was soft and her words slightly mumbled. It sounded like she had had a few too many glasses of wine.

"Yeah, I looked over them when you were wrestling to get Noah to sleep around ten last night." He rolled onto his side to watch her feed their son.

"And? Anything of concern, worry or a complete red flag?"

"Louise's record was spotless, one traffic ticket violation that she fought in court because she was taking her grandmother to the hospital after a medical emergency. But nothing else of note. Her academic records are outstanding for reference sake. Justine's had a couple of things but there was a juvenile sealed case there- which is concerning I guess. Also a few traffic infringements for speeding. It's this sealed Juvie thing that gets me though."

Kate sighed and switched Noah around so he could continue to feed- she knew where this was headed.

"I mean what if she was involved in some drug ring at her school, or she was a member of the teenage mafia _or_ she murdered her babysitter and now that's why she has become a nanny."

"I dunno Castle, somehow I doubt that _any_ of those theories are true. Like many you have come up with before."

She opened her eyes and smirked down at him. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling, with a grin on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, you say that now. But when it comes out that our nanny has a secret background you will be cursing me and my theories."

Kate feigned another sigh.

"Come on Castle, I know that you really liked Justine, but Louise was just...different. And Noah really seemed to like her. She was the only one that didn't come across as terribly fake and doing everything in their power to seem perfect. We know that it is those sort of people that you have to worry about."

"Okay- so decision is made, even after you have been awake more in the last forty-eight hours than asleep?" He ran his hand up her arm that was cradling Noah until he could gently stroke the tufts of hair on his head. He now appeared to be having the best sleep of his very short life.

"Yes, I am happy to make the decision without sleep, or coffee or sugar or a NYPD style interrogation. Louise is going to be our Nanny. And at the moment all I can wonder is if she could start today so I could get some sleep!" She lifted Noah to her shoulder and gently rubbed his back to try to relieve the gas pain she knew was about to wake him up. He let out a tiny burp and promptly fell back asleep on his mothers shoulder.

"Do you want me to take him so that you can go back to sleep?" Castle sat up and held out his arms.

"Yes...and no. This is my favourite time, when he just sleeps curled up on me, but I do need some sleep of my own." She reluctantly handed Noah over to Castle, who curled the tiny baby into his chest.

"Okay- maybe this is my favourite time, watching you hold him like that." She said sleepily as she slid back down under the covers.

"Wake me when he needs to be fed again...kay?" And she fell into a deep sleep.

Castle swung his legs out of the bed and carefully walked through his office into the living room. The clock on the mantle now read five forty-two. He decided that a maybe an hour of father and son sleep time was on the agenda.

"Rocking chair in the nursery it is buddy. Kinda like an amusement ride for the baby years." He spoke gently to his son as he climbed the stairs to the Nursery.

* * *

She stood on the steps of the New York Public library in what would hopefully be the last snowy day for the season, with a copy of the New York Times in her gloved hands, reading the latest about the series of murders that was currently plaguing the city. She figured that if she was going to get this job that she needed to be fully up to date about exactly what case Detective Kate Beckett of the NYPD would be working on.

It had been two days since the interview and she still hadn't heard from them. She was officially starting to worry that all the plans strategically put in place may just start to unravel.

The sound of her cell phone ringing startled her and she was deep in thought. She grabbed it out of her backpack and looked at the caller ID. She groaned as she removed her gloves to swipe the screen.

"Hi Alex." She snapped.

_'Hello Sarah, no need to be so brash- I just wanted an update on how things are coming along?' _He sounded sincere she thought to herself.

"It's only been two days since the interview, if I haven't heard anything by this evening then, and only then, will I start to worry. For now, I still think it's in the bag. Did you get any hits on my backgrounds?" She folded up the paper and jammed it in her backpack.

_'One hit on yourself, one on a Justine Jackson and another on Truong Pheam. So I'm guessing it is between you three. But based on the changes we made, I don't think they will have much of choice. Just let me know when you hear something.'_

She stood up and started walking back towards downtown.

_"_I will, I know what is at stake here remember. I'll talk to you later."

'_Be careful Sarah. Goodbye.'_

She pocketed the phone in her coat and continued walking.

Most people seemed to forget that she had a vested interest in getting this position too, this wasn't just another job for her. She may have fit the profile perfectly for this particular task and that may have been why they assigned this to her, but this was more personal than any other she had taken on before. The rest of her group always managed to act like they forgot that fact.

Especially Alex.

He was rather single minded when it came to Kate Beckett and Richard Castle, and now that they had a child together, he was even more determined than ever to make sure that this job was done properly.

It all boiled down to the fact that she _needed_ to get this job, or her _real_ job maybe on the line.

Her phone started to ring again.

"I swear if he calls me one more time in the next fifteen minutes I will show him how pissed off I can get!" She spoke to herself as she wrestled with her gloved hand to retrieve the phone.

When she looked at the caller ID her heart leapt- this was it.

"Hello, this is Louise." She spoke calmly into the phone.

"Hi Louise, this is Richard Castle. I hope I'm not calling at a bad time?"

She ducked into the nearest coffee shop to get out of biting cold wind.

"No, no. Just wandering around this wonderful but chilly city." She made certain to round her vowels a little more to add to the accent.

"Good. Look, Kate and I have been talking and we feel that you would be great fit with us and with Noah of course. So we would like to officially offer you the job."

She grinned. Of course they would.

"Oh really, that's so wonderful to hear Mr Castle. Thank you so much." She really hoped she wasn't overdoing it.

"Well, we should be thanking you. After the night we just had we are definitely looking forward to your help in the future. We were wondering if you were available in the next few days to come over and we will get all the formalities out of the way."

She looked at her watch, peeked out the window and made a quick decision.

"Well, I am actually in the city today- and I know you probably have a million things to do and get organised but I could come by this afternoon?"

"Uh, well let me talk to Kate and see how she feels and I can give you a call back. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, that's fine by me. I hope to hear from you soon."

"You will, have a good rest of the morning Louise. Bye."

"Goodbye."

She clicked off to end the call.

She was in.

The easy part was over- now came the hard part of the job. Pretending to be the perfect Louise Daley for these people twenty-four hours a day, for the next however many weeks.

She took a deep breath in and dialled the number of her team leader. He answered on the first ring.

"Hey, it's me. I just wanted to let you know that Richard Castle just called and officially offered me the job."

'_Like there was ever any doubt, but congratulations Sarah. I will make sure that the equipment is delivered to your apartment by tomorrow evening so you can get set up and started right away.'_

"I'm hopefully going to meet with them this afternoon to sort out all the logistics and legalities of it all. I will give you another update when I am done there."

_'Excellent Sarah, and I hope I don't need to remind you again of exactly what is at stake here.'_

"I know precisely what is at stake here Alex, you don't need to keep reminding me. I will talk to you this afternoon. Goodbye."

With that she walked up to the counter of the coffee shop and waited in line to place her order. She needed some time to piece her thoughts together and lay out the official course of action. There was no doubt that when Alex sent over the equipment there would be a full briefing and outline of the timeframe for the job completion included- but she still needed to get into the character of Louise and begin to actually become her.

As she sat at a table and pulled out the paper her phone once again rang. It was Richard Castle.

"Hello."

"Hi Louise, I just spoke with Kate and both agreed that if you could come by our place around two we could get this all sorted and you could be ready to start ASAP. How does that sound?"

She smiled.

"That sound fabulous Mr Castle. I shall see you then."

"Looking forward to it Louise, see you soon. Bye."

"Goodbye."

She clicked off the phone and took a sip of her coffee.

And now operation infiltration officially begins.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks again everyone for the reviews/alerts for this fic. Sorry for the longer time frame to get this one out to you, but I spent the weekend in New York City and if you have ever been there before you know that time disappears! Thank you all for sticking with this so far- plenty more to come. **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four.

It was Louise Daley's first day at work and so far it was going perfectly.

She had arrived at the Castle's loft at a eight am, right on time as they had requested. As she was let in to the loft by Rick Castle himself, she noticed Kate sitting on the lounge with Noah. She was fully dressed, face made up, hair looking immaculate, but she looked like she was having a massive internal battle with herself.

"Hi Louise, it's great to see you," Castle said as she made her way in the loft. "Kate will be heading out soon, and I will hang around here to show you the ins and outs of how everything works and then I will be heading into the precinct to join Kate."

He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a mug from one of the cupboards.

"Would you like a coffee?" Louise put her bag on the floor by the door and followed Castle into the kitchen.

"Thanks but no, I ah, don't actually drink coffee."

Kate whipped her around to look at Louise, she had a look of mock horror on her face.

"What? How is that even possible? Even when I was pregnant with Noah I craved it every day, even decaf couldn't fill the void." She got up from the lounge and headed towards the kitchen counter, cradling Noah in her arms.

"I just really don't like the taste of it, I love the smell- don't get me wrong, but the taste. Yeah, no, not my thing." She looked down at Noah who was napping peacefully in his mother's arms.

"How are you feeling about going back to work today?" She said it without really thinking, a typical Louise personality trait. Of course Sarah had fully thought it through.

"I'm excited to get my hands on this case and try and get whoever this guy is, but at the same time I don't want to let go of Noah."

Castle poured her a coffee into a to go cup and placed it on the counter.

"I guess that's my signal to exit. Thanks Castle." She smiled at him, then looked down at Noah.

"Do you want me to take him?" Louise held out her hands.

Kate looked at Louise, back down at Noah and sighed.

"I never thought that I would be this person you know. I always thought that when the day came to go back to work I could just walk out the door." She lifted Noah to her face a kissed the top of his head, then she reluctantly handed him over to Louise.

"It's okay Kate, I promise you that he is in good hands."

"Oh it's not that I'm worried about. It's me. Castle- you turned me into a softie!" She threw him a sarcastic glare as she grabbed her coffee. He made his way around the counter to where she was standing.

"I doubt Kate Beckett could ever become softie, you're just a mom now. The last time you left here to go to the precinct you were only pregnant Detective Beckett. Now you're Noah's mom first and a detective second. It makes you a good mom Kate, not a softie." He kissed her cheek.

"Now get going before Gates chews you out for being late on your first day back."

Kate grabbed her coffee and walked into their bedroom to retrieve her badge and gun from the lock box. As she walked back out she saw Louise cradling Noah, slightly bouncing up and down to keep him sleeping peacefully.

Castle saw her watching Louise as she walked to the front door, he met her there.

"Leaving the first time is always the hardest, trust me." He whispered to her.

"I know, Castle. I know he will be safe, I know he will be cared for, I KNOW he will be fine. But what I don't know is if I will be?" She looked up into his eyes.

"You will be you know, before you know it, you will be back here feeding him his dinner and wondering what you actually did all day. It's nothing to be ashamed of to miss your baby when you're at work either. Ryan understands exactly what it's like, so just ask him if you need to. Kay?" He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"Thanks Castle. Maybe if I just, you know, leave and not think about it, it will all be okay. I'll see you soon?" She grabbed her bag, balancing her coffee in her other hand as he opened the door.

"Yep, once I have shown Louise everything I will head straight in." He bent down to kiss her on the cheek. "You go get em' detective." He whispered after her as she walked out the door.

Louise watched the exchange whilst continuing to rock the sleeping baby. She had no doubt that this was a ridiculously hard thing for Kate to be doing, but she knew that Kate needed to be back at work for this whole plan to work. It still didn't make it any easier to watch the detective struggle to leave the loft.

Castle made his way back to the kitchen.

"So, what would you like to know about first?" He grabbed his coffee and met her on the other side of the counter.

"Well, his routine is really important. I don't want to do anything to throw that off. So now it's eight-thirty should he be sleeping in his crib, awake, in a bassinet?" She looked around for signs of where the baby might sleep.

"We haven't really got down a routine yet of sorts, I mean it's pretty well when he cries we feed him or change him depending on when he last ate. He usually naps upstairs in his crib-but there is a bassinet in our room if he is being particularly fussy. Kate has expressed enough milk for the day and it's already in bottles in the fridge. He is kinda only new to the bottle thing, so it may take a bit of work but I guess if he is hungry he will drink."

Louise followed Castle around as he showed her how everything worked.

So far so good, she thought to herself.

* * *

Kate's first day back at the precinct was not going so perfectly.

She was sitting at her desk, staring at the murder board trying to put the pieces all together, but it just wasn't happening. The boys had been working with some detectives over at the ninth, and the board was just a mess, she was itching to organise it into a more Beckett like arrangement. Somehow she didn't think that she should do that on her first day back, especially within the first hour.

She had walked off the elevator with a slight hesitation, once again wondering if she was doing the right thing, but the boys greeted her excitedly, Ryan pulled her into a hug whilst Espo hung back an stared at her.

"Didn't think we could do this without you huh, Beckett?" Kate detected the sarcastic tone to his voice.

"Well Espo, the closure rate of the precinct did drop significantly from when I went on mat leave, so you might say I had reason to believe that you couldn't." She shot a smirk in his direction.

"It's great to have you back here Beckett," Ryan added "How was it leaving Noah this morning? I walked back into our place five times on my first day back after Jenny had Sienna."

She took a deep breath and dropped her bag into her chair.

"I'm really trying not to think about it, but I did bring this to help ease the separation anxiety."

She held up a picture frame that had a photo of Noah in it, taken two weeks ago.

It was still strange to believe that less than two months ago, he was still inside of her. Rolling around, jabbing her in the ribs and causing her endless amounts of discomfort. The last time she sat at this desk, staring at a murder board she had been caressing her swollen stomach feeling his gentle movements. Now she was putting his picture on her desk.

"Aww, look at him," Esposito crooned over the picture. "He really is handsome Beckett, it is such a shame that he looks so much like his father."

"I know, you would of thought that I would have got a look in somewhere there." She rearranged her desk so the frame was sitting next to her computer screen.

"So, where are we at on this case?"

The boys spent the next half an hour catching her up on all the details.

Five victims so far. All woman aged between nineteen and twenty-four. All had been killed with the same MO, they had been bound, sexually assaulted, drugged and then shot in the heart. All the bodies had been found dumped in the alleys of the East Village and around NYU. They have all be students or post-grads working at the Universities. Two from NYU, two from Columbia and one from Cornell who was visiting the city for the weekend.

Apart from attending colleges, there was no other apparent link between the victims.

Which lead her to be staring at the murder board, wanting to completely rearrange it so that she could find something that would help them break this case before there was another victim.

She turned back to her desk and looked at Noah's picture. She picked up her phone but had to fight the urge to call Castle and check in on him, it was after all only ten am. It had barely been two hours. If she could make it to eleven then she was totally justified in checking in on her son. She placed the phone back down on her desk, and once again turned and stared at the murder board. There _had_ to be something, there always was.

Then her phone whistled, signalling an incoming text. She picked up her phone and saw that Castle had sent a picture of Noah, in Louise's arms, drinking from a bottle. He had captioned it '_Missing mommy led me to hit the bottle_'. She wasn't going to cry, but it took all she had to keep those tears from escaping her eyes. Thankfully Ryan came in, with his usual perfect timing to get her mind back on work.

"The analysis of the financials of all of our victims just came back, and guess what?" He dropped the paperwork onto Beckett's desk.

"Nothing?" Beckett sighed.

"Exactly. There was not one unusual transaction by any of the women at any time in the past twelve months." He said exasperated.

"Okay, so our only link so far is that they are all college kids. Let's get a detailed timeline going and lets place all of them in their last forty-eight hours. Maybe, just maybe they were all in the same place, but a different times and that's why they were targeted." She stood up and drew a timeline on the bottom of the board.

"You know Beckett, you can take everything down and reorganise it if you want. We have just be throwing stuff up there as we find it, and we know how much the board means to you." Ryan smiled at her.

"Thanks Ryan. But for now, let's just get this done."

* * *

He sat in the truck across the street from Castle and Beckett's loft.

Waiting.

He had been tracking the movements of the couple ever since they came home from the hospital with their newest little addition. This was how he was going to make them pay for everything that they had done to him.

He has been planning this for weeks.

Killing those women, conveniently within the jurisdiction of the twelfth precinct, making Kate Beckett return to work. Of course, he had to make the MO interesting enough to get Castle to join her, leaving their precious baby at home with the nanny.

It was all coming together. He just had to have patience, meticulously orchestrate the pieces and he would have his finest moment yet.

He watched as Castle exited the front of the building heading towards the subway. It was eleven-thirty. It would take a few more days of watching, to figure out what their new schedule would be like so he could find the perfect opportunity.

He was going to take their precious son.

He was going to destroy their happiness.

Just like they did to him that night on the bridge two years ago.

And it was going to be fantastic.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Louise was sitting in the rocking chair of the nursery, cradling baby Noah in her arms, humming 'Row, Row, Row your boat' hoping that it would help to settle the now eight week old.

He always struggled with his afternoon nap. Once he was asleep he would stay down for a solid hour and a half, but it was the getting him to sleep that was the issue. For all his morning naps, you simply needed to place him in his crib, wrapped in his blankie and he would stare at his safari animals mobile and then go to sleep. But this afternoon nap everyday was like a battle of wills.

She had discussed it with Kate and Rick, and they had all agreed that if he couldn't get himself to sleep for this one nap a day, then bouncing and rocking and humming him to sleep was a necessity. Sure, all the books say that you should never do that, babies need to self settle and learn that they won't always be rocked to sleep, but when you have a screaming baby three hours later because he is overtired, well you rock him to sleep.

She ran her hand over his head and gently traced a path down his nose to encourage him to close his eyes. It was starting to work, he was down to only opening his eyes every thirty seconds, any moment now he would be asleep. She knew the minute he was out because his hands unclenched just enough to let his little tiny thumb free and his pointer finger outstretched. Rick had called it his 'bang bang' hands, and it meant he was deeply asleep.

She stood up gently and slowly walked over to the crib, placing him down onto the soft cushiony mattress. Since adding another layer of softness to his crib mattress he had started sleeping much better at night, only waking twice for a feed with very little fuss. Kate had attributed it to Louise's rigorous routine, and how she managed to keep him calm during his bouts of gas pain, but Louise just thought he was finally getting used to being in this world.

She checked that the baby monitor was facing the crib and walked out of the room.

As she headed downstairs she checked that the video bug that she had placed on the top of the painting in the hallway facing Noah's door was still working.

It had taken her nearly a whole week to get all the bugs into the right place so she and her team could watch the Castle's even when she wasn't there. As she reached the bottom of the stairs she flicked on Noah's baby monitor and grabbed her iPad that was sitting on the counter. She pulled up her video feed so she could check the security camera's attached to the building.

Her phone started vibrating on the counter next to her, she picked it up and looked at the caller ID.

" Alex, what's going on?"

_'I just saw that you logged onto the video feeds, and I wanted to point something out to you that we discovered.'_

"Oh, okay. Which feed in particular?"

_'The security cam's five and seven from the front of the building,' _she pulled up those cameras on her iPad with a few taps. '_Do you notice anything?'_

She stared at the image from camera five and then switched to camera seven. They both allowed you to see the entire corner of the block that the building was on. Both cameras gave a particularly good view of the parking garage directly opposite the loft. But she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Uh, I'm looking at the them but nothing is really standing out to me." She answered honestly.

_'I didn't expect it to Sarah, but we did find something when we ran our recognition software over the feeds you have been sending us for the last two weeks.'_

She was listening intently whilst staring at the video feeds.

"It's him isn't it. He's been watching hasn't he?"

_'Yes, that is what we can deduce although we have yet to actually see his face. But if you open your email I have just sent through copies of the images we have found.'_

She did as he said, closing the video program and checking her email. There was an email sitting in her inbox from _Alex Cross_. She always laughed over the irony of him choosing that name, of all names. She clicked on the attachment.

"Okay, explain to me what I am looking at."

_'There have been two separate vehicles that have been using that parking garage over the past few weeks that seemed out of place. Meaning that they drove into the parking garage, or sat on the street in front of the parking garage but only on ten out of the fourteen occasions these cars have used the lot, did someone actually exit the car.'_

"I would say that is odd." She looked more closely at the images.

'_We hijacked those cameras yesterday and utilised the IR camera you installed on the roof to scan either of those cars that turned up. Yesterday, the Ford F-150 truck appeared, parked and an occupant exited the vehicle, but the IR camera saw someone else sit in that truck for the rest of the day. We did the same thing this morning, only this time it was the van and the same thing, one person exited whilst the other stayed in the car. Hidden from view of the camera's but definitely watching the building.'_

She scanned the images again, taking in every detail of those two cars.

"What is my next move then Alex?"

_'How about taking that little baby for a walk to the playground on the corner of Mulberry and Spring, we will keep a team on you just in case, but what we hope to see is one of those cars turn up in the vicinity of that park, then we will know for sure. Also whilst you're out, we will do a search of the apartment to make sure he hasn't been in there in the time between them bringing the baby home and you getting the job.'_

"Okay, so tomorrow at around two pm, that's usually the time when Noah wakes from his afternoon nap. I will devise a route for us to take and email it to you. I will also make sure that I am fully armed as well." She took a deep breath as the weight of this entire mission came down on her shoulders.

'_I know I keep saying it Sarah, but I will remind you again of what is at stake here.'_

She heard the concern in his voice, but it didn't stop her from being somewhat upset at the fact he had just mentioned it again.

"I know Alex, I will always know okay. You don't have to keep reminding me. I will send over that email after I have had a chance to look at a map. Anything else?"

_'Just, be careful Sarah. Goodbye.' _

She could again hear that same concern in his voice, this time for her and it brought a small smile to her face. It was rare that he showed any emotion at all toward her, so when she got it- however it came- she took it. She dropped her phone back on the bench and checked on Noah on the screen of the video monitor. He was still sleeping soundly so she decided that she would finishing doing all the laundry and then plot out her route for tomorrow.

* * *

Castle and Beckett were standing in an alley in Alphabet city looking down on another body.

The call had come in at four-thirty just as they were about to leave the precinct to head home. Beckett suggested that Castle head back to the loft whilst she headed to the crime scene, but when Ryan mentioned that it appeared to be another one of the serial killers body dumps they both knew that he needed to come. Neither of them had yet to see one of the actual scenes, so being able to actually put their eyes on the crime scene to see if anything had been missed earlier was key.

Castle had called Louise, to ask her if she could stay later because Alexis wasn't done classes until six. She had agreed, mentioning that she was surprised it hadn't happened earlier. She sent them both a picture message of Noah playing on his play mat twenty minutes later with the caption _'Playing hard whilst mom and dad are working hard_.'

"Espo, is this exactly how all the other crime scenes have been laid out?" She walked around the body as Lanie got to work.

"Yeah, just like this one. It's like he puts them here on display waiting for someone to find them, not making any attempt to hide them at all." He was also walking around the body with Beckett.

"She has been dead less than six hours based on her liver temp and the amount of rigor mortis I am seeing." Lanie joined in the conversation.

"Same cause of death?" Kate asked knowing what the answer would be.

"Yep, single GSW to the heart. I'm betting when I get her back to the morgue I will also find signs of sexual assault." She indicated to the forensic team that they could start photographing the body again.

"Okay, so let's look at it from his point of view," Castle moved so he was standing next to Kate and Lanie, "he obviously targets them in some way that we don't know yet, and he obviously befriends them because there is no sign of struggle on any of the bodies, has sex with them- likely being consensual because, again there is no sign of a struggle or it being violent, he then drugs them so they have no idea what is coming next."

Kate is staring at Castle, and he sees that look in her eye. She has an inkling, and he wonders if her inkling is the same as his. She obviously sees the same look in his eye.

"Castle, it can't be. The girls are different, the MO is different." He's not sure if she is trying to convince herself or him.

"I know that, but think about it. If you had to do a profile on our killer what would you come up with?" They were both facing each other now.

"Someone who cares for his victims and is trying to replace someone with them. But Castle, they are all brunettes, not blondes, they've all been shot, not strangled."

"Okay, so maybe I am grasping at straws here, but it just so happens that the last serial killer that this city saw was Jerry Tyson, and now this next one is showing similarities to his MO. Can we just have it out there as a possibility?"

"Castle." Kate was giving him the look, the one that screamed at him to leave it alone.

Esposito gave a small cough to get their attention.

"We, ah, had given some consideration to the fact that this does show some similarities to 3XK, but given the fact you plugged over ten rounds into the guy, it highly unlikely that he is alive, let alone alive and killing girls again. And Beckett's right, the victims are nothing like his previous targets."

Castle held up his hands in defeat.

"Okay, okay guys, it was just a theory."

He joined Beckett as she walked down the alley looking for any more pieces of evidence.

* * *

Louise was sitting on the lounge in the Castle family room, flicking through the channels looking for something to watch. She had given Noah a bath and his bottle and put him to bed for the night over an hour ago. She has spent the last hour plotting our her route for the walk tomorrow and sent it through to Alex, he had yet to respond.

She heard a key enter the lock in the door and immediately went on high alert. She reached for her backpack where she had a gun hidden in the bottom zipped section. Ready, just in case.

She eased back when she saw the red head walk in the door.

"Hey Louise, how are you?" Alexis said as she made her way into the family room.

"I'm doing pretty good thanks, how about you? How was school today?" She moved over on the lounge to make room for Alexis.

Louise and Alexis had hit off immediately the first time they met. It was Louise's second day and Alexis had turned up after lunch to play with her baby brother. He was sleeping when she arrived, so it gave Louise a perfect opportunity to get to know the other Castle child. They had started talking about college and studying and how awful finals were, then they progressed onto movies and TV shows and discovered a mutual love of Sci-fi. Louise watched Alexis snuggle and feed Noah in the afternoon, allowing her to have time to finish the laundry and pick up around the house before Rick and Kate got home.

"One of my professors assigned us a group presentation as part of our final assessment, and I really don't like them." She dropped down on the lounge.

"Unfortunately, I can tell you right now that there will be many more of them to come," she handed the remote over to Alexis, "see if you can find something decent to watch."

"Have you heard from Dad and Kate?" Alexis asked as she flicked through the channels.

"Last text from your dad was as they were leaving the precinct, that was twenty minutes ago so they should be home soon."

It was at that moment that the door to the loft opened once again and Kate and Rick walked in. Louise stood up and headed for the counter to collect her phone and iPad.

"Hi." They both said at the same time.

Kate made her way over the counter to join Louise whilst Rick headed for the lounge where he dropped down next to his daughter.

"How did Noah go down tonight?" Kate asked as she opened the fridge searching for something to eat.

"Great actually, he passed out whilst drinking his bottle- he only managed about three ounces, so I would probably give him another bottle around ten and hopefully he should sleep a bit longer." She picked up her bag and started packing away her stuff.

"Thanks so much for staying back and putting him down, I hope we didn't interrupt your evening plans?" Kate was pulling chicken and vegetables out of the fridge.

"No, I had a big night of reading ahead of me, so trust me- playing with Noah was much more fun."

Kate turned and looked at Louise who had her bag now slung over her shoulder.

"Hey, why don't you stay for dinner. I mean it's going to be late by the time you get back to Jersey and we have plenty of food so you're more than welcome."

Louise thought about for a few seconds.

"Only if you're sure it's not going to be too much work that would be great thanks." She dropped her bag back under the counter. "Can I do anything to help?"

"Sure, you can grab a bottle of wine out of the wine cabinet and open it, I know I need a small glass tonight. Castle, Alexis- do you guys want a glass of wine?"

Both father and daughter stood up from the lounge and joined Kate and Louise at the counter.

"That would be great, thanks Kate." Alexis answered. Castle opened the cupboard to get out the wine glasses, signalling that he did indeed want one.

"Louise, are you joining us? Castle asked.

"If that's okay?" She put the bottle on the counter.

"Of course!" Castle grabbed the bottle and started opening it with the corkscrew.

The singing of bells echoed into the kitchen.

Kate pulled her phone from her pocket a looked at the caller ID.

"It's Lanie, she must have the prelim autopsy report." She said as she swiped open the phone to accept the call.

"Hey Lanie."

There was silence as they all waited to hear what Lanie had to say. Louise felt like she was intruding, but also felt that it would be awkward to leave.

"What?" Kate's voice grew louder.

"What did it say?" Louder again. Castle moved to stand beside her.

"Okay can you send me through a picture. Thanks Lanie."

Kate clicked off her phone and dropped it to the counter.

"Kate, what did she say? You look kind of pale?" Castle had a concerned look on his face.

"Seems you were right Castle. When Lanie got the body back to the morgue, she removed the clothes and there was a message written on the girls stomach in sharpie."

Louise frowned.

"A message?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Sorry, I probably shouldn't be listening."

Kate looked directly at her.

"It's okay Louise, as long as you realise that anything that happens here that is case related doesn't leave this loft."

"What did the message say Kate?" Castle said in a firm voice.

Kate's phone beeped. She swiped it open and showed the image to Castle. He paled immediately.

Alexis grabbed the phone to look at the picture. There on the midsection of the pale body was a scrawled message.

_K and R, enjoy my little mystery. Let the game begin. 3XK_

* * *

**_A/N: once again I want to say thanks for all the reviews and alerts for this story. Sorry about the delay in getting this chapter out- Hope it was worth the wait. _**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

As he sat outside the Castle's SOHO loft in his 'borrowed' Ford F-150, Jerry Tyson waited for the signs that they had received his message.

He expected both Kate and Rick to head straight to the morgue to examine the body themselves.

He expected them to leave the baby with the nanny.

He then expected to turn up at the door, impersonating the building supervisor after he cut the power to the loft. After being in let in, he could get a sense of what had changed in the loft, get to know the nanny and start orchestrating his plan.

It was what they always did. They always rushed out to see a body whenever some crucial evidence came to light.

What he didn't expect, was to see the nanny and the daughter leaving two hours after he traced the call come in from Dr Parish.

What he didn't expect was to see the lights of the loft go out and the drapes be pulled on the windows of the bedroom.

It seemed he had completely underestimated the total change in the dynamics of the relationship Richard Castle and Kate Beckett had with their job as well as with their child.

It also became apparent that he would need to completely change how he approached this plan. He had relied on the belief that their desire to solve the case and their need to see the body would outweigh their desire to be at home with a crying baby.

It wasn't the first time he had to change a plan because of these two and certainly won't be the last. But this time he was more determined than ever to make sure that they understood what he was going to take from them. Their happiness, their dreams, their child.

He laughed to himself.

It really was the best revenge.

* * *

Kate lay on her side of the bed, rearranging the sheets and her pillows so that she could get comfortable and hopefully get at least a few hours of solid sleep. She didn't know how that was possible now that they knew for certain that 3XK was back, and that he wanted to engage in some sick, twisted game with them.

She watched as Castle exited the bathroom, flicked off the bedroom light and walked over to his side of the bed.

They hadn't talked about it yet.

After the picture message came through from Lanie, Alexis had immediately started asking questions. They spent most of dinner explaining the details of the case to Louise, who they thought deserved to know what was going on now that they had personally been targeted, as it was likely that there would be more late nights to come. Alexis voiced her concern about the direct targeted message towards both of them, but they quietened her concerns with the reassurance that he hadn't yet succeeded in any attempt on their lives.

After both Alexis and Louise left, Castle finished cleaning up the kitchen whilst Kate headed upstairs to feed Noah. It was as she was sitting in the rocking chair watching him feed, she had the realisation.

They had actually put their family before work.

Before Noah, Kate would have been bolting down to the ME's office and staring at the body with her own two eyes. But knowing that she has son to feed, and being in need of sleep herself, meant they had simply stayed home and told Lanie that they would be in first thing in the morning.

"So, what game do you think he is talking about?" Kate asked as Castle tossed his throw pillows onto the floor and pulled back his side of the duvet.

"Do you want the crazy whacked out theory, or the somewhat reasonable one?" He dropped himself down onto the mattress beside her.

"You have multiple theories already?" She rolled over and stared at him.

"Well, if you do recall I mentioned at the crime scene today that I thought it could be 3XK, even though you shot me down with that one at the time, my head does get carried away with these things." He rolled onto his side and tugged at her arm. She wriggled herself across the gap between them so was she lying face to face with him.

"You know I had thought of it too, I just didn't want to believe it," she whispered "Everything is just so perfect right now. We have a great life with a gorgeous baby and I knew that if it was him, it would have something to do with us and I just didn't want to face that Castle."

He ran his hand up and down her arm trying to comfort her. He knew exactly how she was feeling.

"It's a game to him right, but what has me confused is why he has changed his victim type. He has never once deviated from the blonde girls, but now he is targeting brunettes. In particular brunettes with long, curly brown hair."

She looked right into his eyes, seeing clearly that he had reached the same conclusion she had just formulated.

"It's me isn't it? That's why he's targeting these particular women, he is acting out his desire to kill me." She vocalised the thoughts as they came to her. She was so exhausted she couldn't even fathom how this had come about. The big question she still had was why her?

"I think it's to get back at me." He knew exactly where her thoughts had headed.

"For the night on the bridge?"

"Yeah, and for the fact that I ruined his last meticulously planned murder. He wanted me dead, for destroying his ability to disappear. He wanted you to suffer. But now, I think he has changed his game plan. Now, I think he wants you dead and me to be the one suffering."

Kate rolled over and turned her back to Castle.

"I really hate this guy, Castle. But we're going to get him this time. I promise you that much."

He pulled her closer to him, so she fit snugly against his body. He knew she must be exhausted, he was and he hadn't spent a large part of the previous night feeding a fussy baby.

"I know we will."

"Love you Castle." She breathed as she drifted off to sleep.

"Love you too, Beckett." He whispered in her ear before dropping off to sleep as well.

* * *

Sarah bolted into the foyer of her apartment building.

The minute she had got off the NJ transit train, she ran the five blocks to her building. She could hear her phone going off in her jacket pocket but she wanted to wait until she was in the safety and security of her own apartment, with all her own gear before she spoke to anyone.

It was eleven pm by the time she walked through the door, but she knew she had a long night ahead of her, and apparently it was going to get longer.

Sitting on the lounge, with his laptop on the coffee table, was none other than her team leader.

"Jeez Alex!" She yelped as she entered her apartment. "I wasn't expecting you, it's late."

He remained seated on the lounge, waiting for her to come to him. She knew him too well to play his game.

"Alex, it's late. I already have so much to do, it was long day and I don't have time for a scolding from you over this." She bypassed the lounge room and headed straight into her bedroom.

"Sarah, I'm not here to criticize you." His voice was soft.

She spun around and intently studied him.

"I'm here to help you. The stakes in this just got raised significantly and a lot faster than we had hoped." He was looking right at her, and she could see the worry in his face.

"I know, why do you think I just ran all the way back here. The Castle's want me back there at seven in the morning, so I at least want to get a few hours of sleep before I have to get up and face that train again." She was sounding emotional and she knew it.

Rule number one of an operative is to never get emotional, it makes it difficult to separate yourself from the work. But this work was deeply personal, hence the forthcoming waves of concern.

"Sarah," he was using that concerned voice again, it immediately got her attention. "I need you to be able to handle this. I need you to be able to keep your head clear and your reflexes quick. I need you to try and detach the emotion, and see this as just another job."

She walked over to the sofa and studied the man sitting in front of her.

His years of agency work had robbed him of any possibility of a life outside of work. The work itself had taken its toll on him, even though he looked fantastic for his age, there were the signs of the stress this job puts on you. Creases in the skin on his face, scars of battles fought long ago- and some, not so long ago.

He had saved her life in one of those battles, long before she knew who he really was and what he really did. But he changed her life, set her on the right path that lead her to be sitting in an apartment with him, planning the next moves of this operation. If you had of asked that naive fifteen year old where she saw herself in ten years- she would have told you to 'get lost and leave me the hell alone', she had a lot to thank this man for, but tonight he was just one more obstacle in her path to sleep.

"Alex," she sat next to him on the small sofa. "I sometimes wonder if I should be asking you that same question." She didn't look at him as she said it.

It was almost an unspoken agreement amongst the whole team that no one mention his personal connection here. It was after all why this operation had been approved.

He didn't answer. Instead he reached for his laptop and taped a few keys. He pulled up a still image captured from one of the video bugs planted around the Castle loft, in the image was Sarah holding Noah, so he was facing the camera.

He was staring at the image.

"I have been doing this job for close to forty-five years. There has only been two previous occasions where I have been emotionally connected to the subject of the operation. I _know_ the work that needs to be done and I _know_ what is at risk. _That_ is how I function in this job- you have to put the emotional connection away in a place at the back of your mind, and focus. Otherwise, you just might not win."

"Tell me what I need to do." Her voice was quiet, she was also staring at the image.

"You need to convince Rick and Kate that it is in their best interests to keep you there permanently. Then you need to make sure that you are on alert every second of every day until this psychopath is in prison. Starting tomorrow, we will step up security on the loft. Whilst you are out walking I will do a complete search and make sure that our bugs are the only ones there." He had flicked over to a document and was adding equipment to a list.

"You're certain that he wants to kidnap Noah?"

He nodded in response as he continued typing.

"I don't think it was any coincidence that he started turning up in CCTV footage around the loft almost immediately after Noah was born. I have been keeping an eye on this guy for a long time Sarah, ever since he tried to kill Rick Castle and have him arrested for murder, I have been watching. He targets his victims, believes that the story should play out the way he plans it too, and when someone gets in the way of that plan he takes them out." He clicked open several images files on the laptop.

"Do you recognise anything familiar about all these women?" Sarah looked at the screen he had now turned to face her. She took them all in, obviously they were all the victims in this 3XK case, but there was something that her analytical mind caught straight away.

"They all look like Kate Beckett." She stated simply.

"Exactly, so his original target in 2012 was Richard Castle, because he foiled 3XK's plans to disappear in 2009. Kate Beckett foiled his plans in 2012 by choosing to believe the man she loved over all the evidence piled against him..." Sarah cut him off.

"Therefore he kills woman who resemble Kate, keeping them distracted, thinking he will target her, when really he plans to take their baby?" She slumped back on the lounge.

Maybe, just maybe this was too big of a case for her to take on as her first infield operation. Her speciality was technology, ask her to hack in the most classified files of the FBI and she could do it. Break through firewalls of foreign countries governments no problems. She was so used to being the one sitting in the van watching the field agents do their things, she had never really taken into consideration just how MUCH pressure there was on them to get it right.

But this case, this was made all the more harder because of the emotional attachment she had to Castle family. And made staggeringly more difficult because her team leader- who went by the name of Alex Cross when at work, was none other than the father of Richard Castle himself.

* * *

Jerry Tyson sat in a bar opposite Washington Square park.

It was the perfect location to scout for his next victim, there was a plethora of NYU students taking shots at the bar, playing pool, haphazardly throwing darts at the dart board. He looked around, scanning the bar, beer in hand.

Then he found her.

Dressed in faded denim jeans and a cropped off NYU faculty of arts and sciences sweatshirt, long curly brown hair cascading down over her shoulder. He ordered another beer from the barman and confidently walked over to her.

"Hi, I saw you from over the other side of the bar and thought you looked familiar, do you also take Professor Swanson's Intro to Genetics class?" It was gamble, but he liked this part of the chase. Baiting them, asking them open ended questions, latching on to a piece of information and running with it.

It allowed him to become friends with them, get into their lives, make them feel comfortable with him before he could watch the life disappear from behind their eyes.

"Yeah, I do, that last exam was crazy hard. I'm Lacey, and you are?" She held out a hand and he put the beer in it.

"I'm Tyson, Tyson Rook."

Let the game continue.

* * *

**A/N: I know that I keep saying this every chapter but once again, thank you all for the reviews/alerts and faves for this story. A major question was answered in this chapter and I know there were a few of you who may have had an inkling as to where it was going. But there are still a few more surprises in store! **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

It was six in the morning and Kate was feeling remarkably refreshed given the events of the previous day. She was sitting up in bed, leaning against the headboard, feeding Noah his breakfast, while balancing her iPad on her opposite knee.

Due to some miracle Noah had slept through the night. Of course, Kate was awake at 2am, slowly and quietly creeping into his room to check that he was, in fact, still breathing. She looked down on him in the darkness, fought the urge to rub her hand over his head for fear it would wake him, put her hand gently on his chest to feel the rise and fall as he breathed. Once she was satisfied that he was fine, just apparently very tired, she headed back to bed herself.

Then he woke up, at his normal time of five-thirty, and instead of screaming the place down like he usually did, he simply started to whimper. Castle made an offhand comment that maybe he had been switched with another baby at the park, as he crawled out of bed to retrieve Noah from his crib. When he walked back in the room with Noah tucked in the crook of his arm, her heart swelled. Watching him, carrying _their_ son, with his tuft of dark hair and eyes as blue as his fathers.

Blue?

"Castle!" She yelped. "Look at his eyes, they've changed colour."

He sat down on the bed and placed Noah in the space between the two, holding one of the many colourful toys he had above his head.

"So they have, now he looks even more like me." He grinned looking at Kate. She picked her son up, again staring into his eyes, and went about getting comfortable to feed him. He instantly latched on, none of the fussing around he usually did, and started to feed greedily.

Maybe, just maybe, they were coming to the end of the adjustment period.

Castle grabbed her iPad off the nightstand and dropped in on the bed beside her as he headed into the bathroom to get ready for the day they had in front of them.

She was scanning the headlines of all the New York papers and checking her emails, when she saw the one from Lanie. The subject heading mentioned nothing about the results of autopsies, so she assumed it was a 'How the heck are you dealing with this?' email. As she clicked it open, Noah decided he was done.

She sat him on her other knee, gently rubbing his back and bouncing him until he let out a tiny burp. She dropped the iPad onto the bed beside her, lifted Noah up to kiss his forehead as she brought her knees up so she could lay him on them.

"How are you this morning my gorgeous boy?" She crooned.

Noah gurgled back at her in response.

"Really? You are getting to be mommy's big boy now, yes you are!" Her voice had risen to that high pitched baby talk she swore she would never do. She was gently holding his hands and pretending to punch the air with them, when he smiled at her. And once again she noted just how much he did look like his father.

"Do you think the only part of me that you are going to have is my hair?" Again with the voice.

"Oh I dunno Beckett, I think he has a temperament quite like yours." Castle mentioned as he walked out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean, Castle?" She turned to him giving him the full force of her NYPD interrogation glare.

"Stubborn, fussy, likes to get what he wants, doesn't handle change terribly well." He had the hint of smile in his eyes, so she knew he was teasing her.

"Sounds just like you Castle. Doesn't it Noey, sounds just like your dada." He gurgled and smiled back her.

She loved mornings like this the most, when he was happy, calm and just wanted to play with her. An intruding beeping noise gave Noah a little start, but he didn't cry the same way he would have a few weeks ago. Kate looked at her iPad, she had just received a bunch of emails from Esposito- apparently he was at the precinct already. The first new one was titled '_Evidence analysis from Annabeth Curtis Crime Scene'. _It was enough to jolt her back into reality.

Today, they were going to scour through all the evidence from every 3XK body drop over the last few weeks, hoping to find something that could lead them to him.

"Here, I'll take him so you can go and get ready." Castle held out his arms, he was now fully dressed in black slacks and light blue button down.

She handed Noah over, flipped the case of the iPad closed and headed to the bathroom.

As she stood and looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but take note of the knot that had lodged itself deep in her gut. The knot that had been there when she had over fifteen missed calls on her cell phone in 1999, the knot that had been there when Castle reopened her mother's case, the knot that had been there on the day of Montgomery's funeral, the knot that had been there the day Castle got down on bended knee, the knot that meant that something huge and life changing was about to happen. She just hoped and prayed that it wasn't her worst nightmare- leaving her son motherless- that was the big change coming.

She hoped, it was that they could finally, _finally,_ take down 3XK, and go back to living their perfect life.

She hoped.

* * *

He sat watching.

In his usual spot, but in a different vehicle that he had 'procured' the night before. He knew that they would be looking out for the same stolen vehicles sitting in the parking garage, so he had to make sure to cover all bases in the hope that they hadn't yet realised that he was watching the loft.

He was focusing specifically on the movements of the nanny today. Kate and Rick had left earlier than usual, at seven-thirty versus their usual nine am departure, no doubt due to the cryptic clue he left on the latest woman. This meant that the nanny had arrived at the loft earlier, and he hoped, would be staying later, thus allowing him to settle himself into her life, when he figured out what the new routine would be.

It was lunch time and it was usually about now that she would be sitting at the loft window near the lounge room, staring out whilst drinking what he assumed was a coffee. Today, however, she didn't make the usual appearance.

He told himself not to worry, there was a whole new schedule in place with the earlier departure of Castle and Beckett, maybe she was just a little behind.

He grabbed his coffee cup sitting in the holder on the dash board of the car and took a sip. He was struggling to be alert today after the wonderful scouting mission he completed last night.

Lacey would be the perfect next victim.

He spent the night chatting with her, making small talk about the courses that they were conveniently both taking. He used leading questions to get information out of her, make her feel comfortable and by three am when the bar finally closed he was back in her dorm room with her moaning beneath him.

Step one completed.

He made a mental list of what he would need, for tonight to go to his usual meticulous plans. Then he tried to determine exactly what message he would leave for the detective and her crime writer partner, to keep them intrigued, but completely on the wrong tangent in regards to his final plan.

He sat, staring and waiting.

Finally he saw her, exiting the front of the building, pushing an expensive stroller with the precious cargo bundled up inside.

He turned the key in the ignition and drove out of the parking garage and started to follow her.

* * *

"So, essentially we have nothing!" Kate threw her marker at the whiteboard which was covered with the photos of the now confirmed 3XK victims.

Esposito ducked his head as Ryan flicked quickly through his notepad. They both knew that this was not the news she wanted to hear.

"Beckett..." Castle's used _that_ particular tone of voice, the one when he was trying to placate her.

She dropped herself down into her desk chair.

"C'mon guys, there has to be something. There is always something." She ran her hands through her hair.

Ryan spoke up. "It's only the detailed crime scene analyses that we have gone over again, and as we expected, because this is 3XK, there was nothing new to be found. What we need to find is his kill spot."

"We have the locations of all the body drops, why don't we put them all on a map and see if we can triangulate a common area near them all." Kate felt like she was grasping at straws.

"But this is 3XK, do you really think he is going to have made it that easy for us?" Castle was chewing on the end of a pen as he spoke. Not really looking at anyone but more thinking out loud.

"Well do you have any better suggestions?" Kate whirled at him.

Ryan and Esposito exchanged looks with each other, snuck backwards away from the confrontation that was about to happen and escaped into the break room.

Castle sat still, staring at the murder board. He knew that this was taking its toll emotionally on Kate, he knew that she was missing her son, her hormones were still all messed up and that most of all, she was petrified about what 3XK's plan was. So he didn't respond to Kate directly.

"I think, and this is only a suggestion, that we need to figure out exactly how he is luring these woman. Where is he finding them, what does he tell them, how long is it between him meeting them- bedding them and then killing them? We need to get the story." He slowly turned to look at her.

"Sorry, Castle. It's just..." He reached out and took her hand.

"I know Kate. I was the one he targeted last time remember, I was the one whose life he tried to destroy. He didn't get to do it then and you know what, he won't get to do it now."

She laced her fingers through his, and looked up into his blue eyes.

"There is so much to lose this time though Rick, and I know that might sound like it trivialises where our relationship was last time, but now. Now, if I lose you, I lose my fiancée, the father of my child, my one and done. And if it's me he is after, then Noah is going to have the same pain that I did, losing a mother and I just cannot even fathom doing that to him." A single tear had formed in the corner of her eye, Castle reached out to wipe it away as it fell.

"That's why we are here remember, that's why we've left him in Louise's very capable hands and its why we must find the story." He cupped her chin with the same hand he had used to wipe away the tear.

"I love you Castle, I know I don't ever say it enough, but you need to know that, okay." She whispered into his hand.

"You don't need to say it Kate, there is a little boy at home who is the very product of how much you love me, and of course a few other thing as well." Castle grinned at her, trying his best to lift the mood.

"And lucky for you, I love you too." He let go of her hand and turned back to the murder board.

"Okay, I'm going to reinterview every family member, every friend, dorm partners, lab partners, anyone, to see if any of these girls had spoken about a guy they recently met."

Castle smiled at her.

"That's my girl!"

* * *

Sarah walked briskly down Mulberry Street, completely ignoring all of her training instincts to check and double check that she wasn't being followed. They couldn't afford the risk of tipping off Tyson. So she plastered a smile on her face and bounced along with the music playing from her iPhone.

It seemed Noah liked listening to Florence and the Machine. Every time she played that album he would start looking around with a tiny grin on his face. If she switched over to some Adele he would start to whimper until Florence started singing again.

As she stopped at a set of traffic signals waiting for her turn to cross Kenamare Street, she pulled her phone of the bag swinging from the handle of the stroller to check for any messages from Alex.

Nothing.

She looked up and checked that her signal was still red as she fired off the quick message.

'_Any sign of JT in my vicinity?' _Then she dropped her phone back in the bag.

She crossed the street and headed into the park, looking for a quiet secluded area where she could safely get Noah out of his carrier and feed him his bottle. Again she had to mute her instincts to check her surroundings.

Her phone beeped and she retrieved it out of the bag, along with Noah's bottle of expressed milk she hard warmed before leaving the loft. She uncapped it and checked the temperature on her wrist, it was perfect. She glanced at her phone and saw the message from Alex.

'_JT spotted tailing, blue Honda minivan, in vicinity of park.'_

At least now they knew for certain that Noah was his intended target. Sarah was waging an internal battle, trying to remain calm and appear as though she was just a regular nanny out with her young charge without any worries in the world, all the while hoping against hope he wouldn't make his move just quite yet. She quickly typed her message back as Noah began to fuss.

_'Will keep eyes watching while maintaining cover.'_

She stood and unclipped Noah from his carrier and settled him into her arms. He greedily accepted the bottle she put near his lips.

Another woman, age appropriate to herself sat down beside her on the bench, pulling a stroller behind her.

"Hi, I hope you don't mind if I sit here do you, I have a baby to feed as well and this is the only shady spot in the park where I can watch the four year old play?" Sarah looked up and smiled, then looked at the stroller that had two seats attached.

"No that's fine, I completely understand." She continued to feed Noah, checking he wasn't gulping in too much air.

"I'm Cassidy, I haven't seen you around here before, new to the area?" She asked in a friendly voice as she unstrapped the four year old and directed him to the sand play area with a small shovel and pail.

Sarah engaged her Louise persona and accent.

"I'm Louise, and Noah here is only eight weeks old, so we don't venture out much. We usually go to Washington Square Park but I wanted somewhere a bit more peaceful today."

Cassidy grinned back at her as she retrieved her baby from his carrier on the stroller.

"There is a group of us who tend to come to this park between lunch and three with the kids and hang out. I'm usually here two or three times a week. This is Isabella and she is seven months old, and that bundle of crazy over there is Cam." She fished a bottle out of the overflowing diaper bag stuffed under the stroller. "I've been nannying for this family since Cam was five weeks old." She expertly removed the bottle cap with one handed and passed it to Isabella who clumsily tried to hold it.

"Wow, so you have really been with then for quite some time. I have only been looking after Noah now for two and bit weeks. I'm absolutely loving it though." As she was looking at Cassidy she noticed a blue Honda minivan parked in a metered space, and made a mental note of the outline of the person sitting in the driver's seat.

"It really is a great job, especially if the parents aren't terrible. I had one family I was only with for three weeks because they demanded I do everything, had no contact with their child, refused to eat the meals I prepared and threw the clothes I had freshly washed and folded on the floor because I hadn't ironed the underwear. C-Razies! What is the family you work for like?"

Sarah wasn't certain how to answer that question. She knew that Richard Castle was a famous author, and she knew he was sometimes in the tabloid headlines of the New York papers, but she didn't know how much people knew about him, his relationship with Kate and their child.

So she went with the run of the mill response.

"Oh they are great, they both just work really long hours at the moment, but it should calm down in a few weeks."

She sat Noah up and began to gently pat his back and bounce him to bring up the wind he had swallowed whilst feeding. He smiled at Isabella who was greedily drinking her bottle.

"Oh look at him!" Cassidy exclaimed. "What a little cutie and look at those blue eyes."

* * *

Alex Cross was standing in the lounge of Richard Castle's loft, staring at the picture of Martha Rogers that was sitting on a side table.

He was unexpectedly hit with the emotions he had tried suppress since he activated this mission. The last time he had helped out his son and granddaughter it was easier to stay slightly more emotionally detached because he had only ever watched them, he had never met them or been involved in their lives.

That's when he was Jackson Hunt.

Now, as he stood staring at the face he had pictured nearly every night for the last forty plus years he wondered what he was doing here.

He had scanned every inch of the loft, finding only the bugs that Sarah had meticulously planted. He checked the main door to ensure that the locks were completely secured and untampered with.

It was as he was leaving, when he was drawn to the picture. When the memories of that night flashed through his mind as they had many times before.

It was then he made the decision, that after this was done, he was going to make amends, he was going to see her again and he was going to make his wrongs, right.

If he made out alive.

If Sarah made it out alive.

If Noah made it out alive.

He plucked his phone out of his jacket pocket and dialled Sarah's number. She answered on the third ring.

"Hello, this is Louise." That was the code that meant someone was in hearing distance of the call.

"Hi, it's Alex. Just letting you know that I have done everything requested and the place is all clear. You are free to come back anytime." He clicked off the call.

This had to go perfect, too much was at risk.

* * *

Jerry Tyson stood over the body of the lovely Lacey who only hours before had been writhing underneath him. He didn't enjoy the act of screwing these girls, in fact he got very little pleasure from it at all.

It was this part that gave him chills, that made his heart race and his blood pressure spike.

The act of killing.

Putting all his methodical plans into action and then staging his crime scene.

Tonight he had begged Lacey to come back to his 'art studio' as he had called it so she could model for him. It was always how he got them, the minute you mention anything about being a model to any young twenty something college student they were all over it.

He always follows through with the promise of letting the model, then he seduces them, screws around with them and finally, brings them a drink of bottled water that has been laced with enough GHB to knock out a horse.

That's why Lacey was now lying unconscious, on the floor of the abandoned building he had decorated to look like an art studio.

He dressed her in the outfit he had especially picked out for her, not an easy task manoeuvring an unconscious grown woman. Then he laid her out, wrapped his hands around her throat and gently squeezed. It was extremely difficult to pull back from need to strangle, he had to restrict himself.

He stood over her, pulled the Glock 19 from the holster at the back of jeans and aimed right at her heart.

As he pulled the trigger and watched her body shudder as the bullet ripped through her, he let out a moan. This was the release he needed, this was the release he craved.

He had to kill. He loved to kill.

He was 3XK.

* * *

**A/N: I apologise profusely for the delay in the update of this fic. If you know anything about Ontario cottage country you will understand why it has taken so long. Lack of internet connection is only one of the many reasons! Thank you all for your reviews and alerts. I am hoping still to hit the ficathon goal! **


End file.
